FILM REVIEW: TO KILL A MOCKINGNBIRD
SUBMITTED TO:
PROF. AMITA DHANDA
SUBMITTED BY:
HIMANSHU MALHOTRA
1ST YEAR, 1ST SEMESTER
ROLL NO. : 2012-22
NALSAR UNIVERSITY OF LAW, HYDERABAD
To Kill a Mockingbird, directed by Robert Mulligan, is based on Harper Lee’s novel published in 1960. The movie is set in the racially divided state of Alabama, USA in the years of economic depression of the early 1930s. It focuses on racial discrimination prevalent at that time in the society and the effects of such discrimination on the judicial system. Since judges and jurors are also human beings prone to prejudices, many a time it is observed that what courts term as ‘justice’ is not just at all. As a student of legal theory, it is important to note how such prejudices and biases come in the way of administering justice and make it difficult for the legal system to remain objective and neutral in its approach.
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Through the trial procedure, the director tries to make us understand the difficulties of administering justice in a society as racially discriminated as the town of Maycomb, Alabama during the time. On a close examination of the trial sequence, it becomes clear that the prejudices in the minds of the jury members come in the way of administering justice. As the jury didn’t have a coloured man in its midst, such prejudices are quite understandable. Maybe that was the reason behind the jury’s unanimous decision to hold Tom Robinson guilty as